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Fermented milk from Brittany, France

Gwell (Breton gros-lait)gwell

Gwell is a Breton farm sour milk made from the milk of Bretonne Pie Noir cows. Pasteurised whole milk is seeded with cold Gwell from the last batch and set at 30 °C by mesophilic lactic bacteria; no commercial starter is used.

Fully documentedFermented milk3.5 h – 6 h

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe producers' typical process as described in the 2020 study; amounts are given as a share of the milk.
Whole milk of Bretonne Pie Noir cowsOne litre of whole milk gives one litre of Gwell[pleinchamp2026]
Cold Gwell from the previous batch5–10 % (v/v)The only starter; no commercial culture[gastrow2020]
Starterbackslop: 5–10 % (v/v) cold Gwell from the previous batch; no commercial starter

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.5 h – 6 h

Start
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85 °C

What changes: The whole milk is pasteurised at 85 °C

Step 1 of 4
Pasteurise the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
85 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Lactococcus lactis
Geotrichum candidum

Output: heated milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

heat kills the milk's own bacteria

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Gwell is a Breton farm sour milk made from the milk of Bretonne Pie Noir cows. Pasteurised whole milk is seeded with cold Gwell from the last batch and set at 30 °C by mesophilic lactic bacteria; no commercial starter is used. Made in 4 steps over 3.5 h – 6 h. The longest step, set in pots, takes 3.5–6 h (von Gastrow L. et al. 2020) and runs at 30 °C (von Gastrow L. et al. 2020). Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris and L. lactis subsp. lactis biovar diacetylactis, always found together and Geotrichum candidum do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step3.5–6 hReported[gastrow2020]Set in pots
Temperature30 °CReported[gastrow2020]Set in pots

What makes this one different

Gwell is a mesophilic farm sour milk kept alive only by backslopping, with no commercial starter, and tied to the Bretonne Pie Noir breed (a 2019 producers' association also covers other Breton breeds). In the 2020 study, typical Gwell had no thermophilic streptococci in the culture counts, though S. thermophilus turned up in some typical samples after an enrichment step; samples with thermophilic streptococci counted were judged non-typical.

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is pasteurised and the curd is kept at 4 °C. Producers sometimes lose their ferment to slow souring and must take new Gwell from another farm.

Hazards the sources name: Coliforms (1.8 and 2.8 log CFU/mL in two samples; one sample excluded for excessive levels).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Gros-lait was a popular home product in early 20th-century Brittany and declined with the Bretonne Pie Noir breed, whose rescue plan began in 1976. Farmers registered the Gwell trademark in 1993 and compiled specifications in 2014; about a dozen producers made 50 tonnes a year by 2026. The Crapal timeline says young Bretonne Pie Noir breeders rediscovered the recipe of gros lait (laezh téo) after the 1980 rescue plan, and that the Association des Paysans Producteurs de Gwell was created in 2019, open to other Breton breeds, to seek an IGP; the 2026 Pleinchamp article describes the bid as an AOP. The two sources differ on the date of the trademark; Pleinchamp gives 1993, while the Crapal timeline lists the collective mark under its 1999 plan.

  1. [gastrow2020] von Gastrow L. et al. 2020, Microbial diversity associated with Gwell, a traditional French mesophilic fermented milk inoculated with a natural starter, Microorganisms 8(7):982paper
  2. [pleinchamp2026] Perrot C. 2026, Le gwell, ce produit magique qui veut faire entrer la Bretagne dans le club des AOP, Pleinchamp, 20 February 2026web
  3. [crapal] Conservatoire des races animales en Pays de la Loire (Crapal), La Vache Bretonne Pie Noir, breed history leaflet (20 years)web